Joe, it is true you can't pay for pizza:) but for some investors it's about building passive income to retire on, pay for kids college/wedding... our market has gone up 26% in the last 12 months, predicted to go up another 20% in the next 12...  

They all have the same theme:  advise about helping with foreclosures, etc. 

@Greg Moritz did you accompany the inspector on Wed.? 

Having said that, my fiancé and I are getting married in May and I was planning on saving money through the winter and getting started investing after my wedding in the spring.

Drive in location, theme parks, military, medical district, and historic draw (Alamo, riverwalk) were a few reasons we started here.

@Dan ShelhamerCongrats on your upcoming wedding.

Our initial thoughts was to update some of the property to have more amenities to add to the guest experience and to offer it as a wedding venue.

That banker in the little corner office in your home town branch may be on a career path that parallels your growing real estate business and the relationship may turn out to be a valuable asset far into the future.On the other hand I think if people know what you do for a living and know that you “work with your hands” as they say, and you appear in a suit and tie and it's not a wedding or a funeral, they're going to think you are overdoing it.

For example, once we had the iron go bad for one of our guests who were there for the wedding.

But in themed if you're doing it truly for estate planning purposes and don't transfer the beneficial interest to an LLC or something, you're probably okay.